Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments and, more particularly, to surgical instruments including jaw members for grasping, treating, sealing, stapling, and/or dividing tissue, and where the surgical instruments are configured for endoscopic use.
Description of Related Art
Many surgical instruments are known for sealing, stapling, or otherwise joining tissue. Some of these surgical include one or more movable handles, levers, actuators, triggers, etc. for actuating and/or manipulating one or more functional components of the surgical instrument. For example, a surgical forceps may include a movable handle that is selectively actuatable relative to a stationary handle for moving at least one jaw member with respect to another jaw member of the forceps between spaced-apart and approximated positions for grasping tissue therebetween. Such a forceps may further include additional triggers for selectively actuating electrosurgical energy or for deploying staples, and/or for deploying a knife between the jaw members to cut tissue grasped therebetween.
In certain types of surgical procedures, it may be useful to use an energy-based device during endoscopic, laparoscopic and other minimally invasive surgeries. Many challenges exist when attempting to make an energy-based surgical device below a certain diameter (e.g., 2.8 mm), such as the transmission of clamping pressure between the jaw members, the ability to transect the tissue between the jaw members, and the conduction of electrical current. Additionally, ensuring electrical isolation of tissue-contacting surfaces of jaw members is challenging for surgical instruments of the size (e.g., diameter) contemplated herein. Accordingly, a surgical instrument including these capabilities with a relatively small diameter may be useful.